As you are presumably aware the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 began World War I. Why did Archduke Ferdinand go to Sarajevo in the first place?
Austria-Hungary had annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 and set up military units there. These troops were objects of considerable controversy. Serbian nationalists who called themselves the “New Bosnians” claimed that the troops were being used to harass and persecute Serbians. Ferdinand went to Sarajevo at the invitation of the governor to inspect the troops. The visit accomplished little if anything. It was just unnecessary and, clearly, an unappreciated risk.
As of this writing Speaker Pelosi has left Taiwan for South Korea, the next stop on her junket. Within hours of her departure, the Chinese sent a squadron of jet to the “median line”, the halfway point between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, and fired long-range rockets into the waters north, south, and east of Taiwan, some of them going over the island. Chinese state media claim that Chinese forces are engaged in a simulating of an air/sea blockade of Taiwan.
If that’s as far as these activities go, we should all breathe a sign of relief. They’re just a face-saving exercise.
All of this stuff seems far too risky to me with little being gained by it one way or another.
